The measure will require pharmacists in Oklahoma to send a purchaser profile to a multi-state registry system instead of just to the local branch of the Bureau of Narcotics. The new system, called NPLEX or National Precursor Log Exchange, is a database used nationwide to track the purchase of pseudoephedrine and to allow states to share that information.

Currently, those without a prescription can purchase 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine within 72-hours, 7.2 grams monthly, and 60 grams per year. With a prescription there is no limit.

Pseudoephedrine is a popular ingredient in many over-the-counter allergy medications, but it is also the key component in used many meth labs here in Oklahoma, and is often purchased over the counter. Meth traffickers are currently able to purchase the quota allowed in Oklahoma, and then cross the state border to buy more.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics hopes that the new law will make it tougher for criminals to transport the drug from state to state.

“This will help close a loophole that meth cooks have tried to exploit by going to multiple states to purchase pseudoephedrine. Now those states will be tied into a national system and people will not be able to get more than the Oklahoma law allows,” said Mark Woodward with the OBN.

Speaking to KOCO’s Erielle Reshef, Pharmacist Dani Lynch of Thrifty Pharmacy said that the new law won’t affect her business as much as those pharmacies near state lines. “As far as we’re concerned it makes no difference. We still have to collect the same information from the patient,” she said.

Lynch maintained that the “bad guys” who are using the drugs for meth labs are not usually buying from pharmacies, and if they try, they are easily detectible. “They come in packs, sometimes, the smurfing that we talk about, just like when we have someone forging a prescription, they talk too much…so they give themselves away,” she said.

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